Handbook of Decision Making

by Nutt, Paul C.; Wilson, David C.

• ISBN13: 9781405161350
• ISBN10: 1405161353
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-05-17
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

Wiley's new Handbook of Decision Making is a vital reference text for all students and professionals of management, organization and decision making. The handbook offers a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches to the understanding of organizational and strategic decisions. Contributors are internationally known experts drawn from North America, Canada and Europe who have spent many years in the study of decision making, and decision making relevant topics. We believe the handbook will become a tour de force in the understanding decision making, offering a wide variety of perspectives, topics, and summative understanding of the field. Chapters in the Handbook were prepared by the leading experts in their field and include cutting edge empirical, theoretical, and review chapters. The chapters bring together for the first time a critical mass of writing on decision making as an organizational and research activity. The Editors are two of the leading international experts in decision making and contribute to the Handbook with five original Chapters that offer an appraisal of the field and suggestions for research, as well as the current status of decision making practice and suggestion for improvement.

Author Biography

Paul C Nutt is Professor of Management Sciences at Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University. Professor Nutt’s research on management decision making has been widely published, with more than 100 articles in journals such as Management Science, Organization Science, Strategic Management Review Journal and the Academy of Management. Dr. Nutt is a fellow of the Decisions Sciences Institute and has received numerous awards for his articles, he serves on several editorial boards, including the Strategic Management Journal and Management Science.

David C Wilson is Professor of Strategy at Warwick Business School, Warwick University. He serves on several editorial boards and has recently completed his term as Editor of Organization Studies. His work on decision making is well known, having begun with the Bradford Studies in the 1970s, and has been widely published in books and journals.

Table of Contents

The Blackwell Handbook on Decision Making

Rationale: This handbook offers a state-of-the-art overview of research and theories on decision making in organizations at the strategic level of analysis

Chapters are authored by leading international scholars, and the comprehensive theoretical coverage is combined with in-depth illustrations (case examples), to bridge academic and practical concerns. Topics covered emphasize the classic decision theory perspectives while also incorporating recent insights from the fields of strategic choice, risk & uncertainty; complexity theory, economics, political sciences and sociology

Key Selling Points

Comprehensive, but accessible coverage of classic and recent developments

Chapters by established experts drawn from academia and the world of practice

Detailed case analyses illustrating practical consequences of theories

Guide to new research directions and theory

Audience: Blackwell recently published

The Blackwell Handbook of Judgment and Decision Making (2004; edited by Koehler and Harvey)

That volume focuses on the psychology market for behavioural decision theory, while the handbook of strategic decision making by Nutt and Wilson targets academics and consultants in corporate strategy; management & organization theory, business policy; strategic choice; decision science and organization design. It touches on applications to finance, economics, risk analysis and scenario planning, with a broad social science perspective on the disciplinary roots of decision theory in economics, politics, and social theory

Draft Contents // outline of chapters

Overview

Introduction and approach to the book (Wilson and Nutt)

(This section will provide an overview of the book and purposes, discussiong motivations and dilemmas found in the field

Major theories and views of decision making

(This section will highlight major theories derived from descriptive, prescriptive, and empirical work to date, using both new work and reprints of crucial approaches to decision making. The intent is to be provocative, seeking to identify what is being said about the field

See first, think first, or do first (Mintzberg)

Sense-making as decision making (Weick)

Leadership and decision making (Quinn and Ashford)

Chaos and decision making (Gersick)

Power, politics, and decision making (Pfeffer)

Strategic choice and decision making (Child)

Risk uncertainty and decision making (Keeney)

Ethics and decision making (Freeman and Goia)

Learning and decision making (Argyris)

Public/private differences and decision making (Rainey)

High velocity decisions and decision making theory (Eisenhardt)

Fine grained decision making (Pettigrew)

Insights from the Bradford studies (Wilson)

Prescriptive process theory from best practice tactical moves (Nutt)

Recent empirical findings that support theories and views

(This section will offer the latest empirical work on decision making. Each of the authors is working on a piece that will identify hi/her views of the frontiers of the field, hence the titles of each personÆs work are still under development

Strategy Process and decision making (Bromiley)

Cases that support a see-first approach (Langley)

Another look at the decision data (Sharfman)

Decision Theory(Thomas)

Illegal decisions and 'crafty'strategies (Wilson)

Empirically testing process theories (Nutt)

Methodology required to study processes

(This section highlights research approaches used to study process along with some of the dilemmas encountered and the emerging demands for future research efforts. The do ability of such demands is discussed, along with the increasingly difficult requirements being posed by journals that much such studies problematic

A comparison of empirical approaches (Van de Ven and Poole)

Recent developments in the study of processes (Nutt)

The Bradford approach to the study of Process (Wilson)

Qualitative methods (Nutt)

Case experiences

(The comments of practitioners will be offered to identify issues not being attended to and the kind of results that would be seen as useful. Case studies offer illustrations of the problems being encountered and the successes and failures of practitioners when engaged in decision making

PractitionersÆ comments on whatÆs available and whatÆs needed (to be recruited)

Case studies (to be commissioned

The Future of decision making and research

(The sum up will attempt to integrate the theories, empirical evidence that supports them, and user expectations. Attempts to define the frontiers of the field will be made offering what we know and what we need to find out to create a viable theory of decision making. We will link traditional decision theory to current debates surrounding cognition, uncertainty and risk also identify issues that must be addressed and research efforts that will be required to answer the questions posed

Integrating and expanding: where we are and where we must go to build a viable theory of decision making (Nutt and Wilson)

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